Liam gasped. The Transcendent realm! This was the power he had been trying to achieve for the past several months, and yet at every turn, he was met with failure. Finally, getting a piece of the soulmancer heritage helped him push past all the hurdles and step onto this new path. Liam closed his eyes and tried to absorb everything as much as he could. He had already absorbed and accumulated countless memories about the Dao of Fire. Some of them he had made his own, and some were yet to be assimilated. The breakthrough had also helped clear up some of the mental clogs he had in the process. If he tried to assimilate all those bits and pieces of memories again, this time his gains would be much bigger. He did not waste anymore second, closed his eyes, and dove right into it. He had already stepped into the Transcendent realm. He had no plans to stop with just this. After stagnating for so long, he was itching to push past another breakthrough barrier. After the Transcendent realm came the Dao expert realm. He was confident he could reach here right here and now. Meanwhile… on the outside… A towering banner of pure Dao intent, a wildfire of spiritual authority that roared into the skies above the pagoda, was visible across the entire region. Clouds parted violently, lightning sparked in crimson arcs, and the land itself trembled as the pillar of fire extended beyond the heavens. Every beast and cultivator within hundreds of kilometers felt it, a crushing, awe-inspiring pressure that rooted them in place. And those who could perceive the Dao intent directly… trembled. Because this wasn't the signature of a cultivator stepping into the Transcendent realm. This was the signature of a being who had mastered a Flame Law and rooted it in a Dao Tree, a feat that took many centuries, if not lifetimes, to achieve. The other alchemists froze and looked up at the phenomenon in awe. The draluras were shocked to the core. The person had reaped so much from their land's treasure that they were able to make such a breakthrough. Every single pair of draconic eyes burned with greed and envy. They had no idea who dared to step inside their sacred pagoda, but no matter who it was, they did not plan to let that person leave the world alive. The draluras immediately mobilized and started gathering around the pagoda. Draluras from every nook and corner of the world received the command and quickly headed over. Within a matter of seconds, the forest outside of the pagoda became filled with the scent of blood. The draluras cleared all the monsters in the forest, not leaving even a single one behind. Bloodlust and killing intent filled the area. In the blink of an eye, about a thousand draluras ended up gathering around the pagoda. The very forest seemed to wither under their collective aura. From beast riders to ancestral scale elders, the entire force of the Dralura clans had answered the call, some from mountain-top thrones, others from hidden volcanic nests. All now converged on the glowing pagoda, their wings blotting out the sky This was no longer a sacred site. It had become a war zone. The moment the human who had stepped inside their sacred temple came out, there would be carnage! Back inside the pagoda, Liam sat deep in meditative trance. His soul had begun to reflect the shape of the flame Dao Tree, and its branches now shimmered with threads of deeper laws. The soul clone mirrored this evolution perfectly, seated opposite him, both engulfed in golden-red light. And just as Liam reached out to connect the deeper flame truths… the whole structure shuddered. The last bit of the soul energy left in the pagoda was stripped clean by him, and the formation of the pagoda no longer held strong. Liam's eyes immediately flashed open in alarm, and so did his soul clone. He was not foolish enough to think that he was the strongest in the whole cosmos or even in this world. He was still basically a beginner who had only now stepped from the Awakening rank into the Transcendent rank. It was nothing to write home about. His enemies were all a thousand times stronger than him. He might have finally removed the hurdle stopping him from progressing further, but now he needed time to actually make that progress. He doubted he would get that time if he stayed here any longer. Since he had pretty much accomplished every single thing he had set out to do, there was no point in staying either here or in the Green Mountain Sect any longer. Perhaps in the future, he would one day visit the sect to personally express his gratitude to the old man he had met, but now it was fucking time to run. There was no doubt about it. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺 Snapping out of his meditative trance, the first thing Liam did was tear up his teleportation talismans. He tried a few talismans, some to earth and some to the eternal sword palace, but none of them worked. He then remembered that lunatic woman's warning that he would not be able to teleport out of here. Shit! He needed to get to the portal. That was the only way out of here. It was fine. He had already made backup plans for everything. "Seal the formation. None must escape!" "Kill the intruder!" "Kill! Kill! Kill!" "Seize the heaven's treasure! Seize our family's treasure!" Just as Liam absorbed the Dao clone back into himself and activated the switch between himself and his soul clone, he felt the pagoda's sturdy ancient walls tremble and shatter. His eyes widened in shock as he managed to get a glimpse of the army waiting to tear him apart, when his figure disappeared and reappeared somewhere else. What an astounding gathering of powerful creatures!! His body still trembled from the sheer killing intent and murderous aura in the air.